Disney recently announced that it has a live-action adaptation of Hercules in development and that directors Anthony and Joe Russo would be helming the film. The brothers are primarily known for directing Captain America: Winter Soldier, Avengers: Infinity War, and Avengers: Endgame.
A lot of Disney's live-action adaptations play it safe and basically repeat what their animated classics did, as was the case with The Lion King, Aladdin, and Beauty and the Beast. However, the Russos plan to do something different with the upcoming Hercules film.
The duo talked about it while in an interview with The Collider. Apparently, they and their kids are huge fans of the animated Hercules, so when they heard that Disney planned on revisiting it, they recommended themselves for the job. But despite their love for the movie — maybe even because of it — they don't plan on sticking to it as closely as the other mentioned live-action adaptations did theirs.
Here's Anthony Russo's explanation as to why:
Well, I think you always have to bring something new to the table because from our perspective as storytellers, it’s not compelling for us to do a literal translation. We’ve already done that with our Marvel films. We don’t do literal translations of the comics because we feel like if you want that story you can go read that story. We’re going to give you a different story. I think we’ll do something that’s in the vein of the original and inspired by it, but we also bring some new elements to the table.
The Russo's have the right idea. Using the animated film as an inspiration instead of a foundation will allow the upcoming Hercules movie to have its own identity and charm, which is something Disney's other live-action adaptations lack. In comparison to them, this movie already sounds interesting.
The live-action Hercules currently doesn't have a release date.
Source: Collider